All is well from motherhood-land.  Kids are happy, healthy and alive and we’ve got another week of keeping baby in under our belt (literally, I suppose) – hooray!

(check out Norah’s fab hair-do above… trying to give her more freedom of hair choices… hmmm)

Friday I saw my midwife for my prenatal check-up.  Rather than make plans toward my due date (September 13), since I continue to be having so much pre-term labor and baby just keeps getting lower and lower (seems like that couldn’t be possible, but – alas – it is), she set the date of August 19th as my goal date to keep baby in until then.  After that point, I don’t have to be as careful (i.e. avoiding strenuous labor).

For instance, when I saw my midwife on Friday, I had just spent the previous three days painting my great room with my mom (my sweet partner in crime – thanks mom!).  I asked for paint and shades for our great room for my birthday.  The “bedrest” situation has made me ITCH to make the inside of our house easier on the eyes.  Needless to say, my midwife was NOT thrilled and has banned me from painting again until after baby comes.

(Tate painting a masterpiece during our project – this photo makes the teal look MUCH more vibrant and bright than it actually is)

But – AHHHHH!!!! – our great room looks FANTASTIC!  It’s teal with dark bamboo roman shades.  Every time I’m in it, my mood lifts considerably.  I love it!  I’ll have to take some pics and post them soon (maybe after I convince the kids this evening to clean up their toys that are covering the floor *wink*).

Surprisingly, my kids were absolute angels during the painting process!  It was stunning.  All three of them played together away from where we were painting and were careful to avoid coming near any wet-paint areas.  We painted all three of those days during kids being awake, which I think is miraculous.

Tate had another week of summer camp and swim lessons.  He even jumped off the diving board on the last day of class!  I was so proud of him!  That part terrified me when I was little and consequently made it so I never really learned to swim well.  Tate has had such a great time going to summer camp and was really sad to see it end.

Claire is eagerly counting down the days until her dance class begins (1st day is tomorrow!).  Last week during one of Tate’s summer camp days I took the girls to Claire’s dance studio to sign her up for her classes.  The studio just happened to be having a dance class for girls ages 3-6.  They let us sit in and watch the class for a bit.  I thought I’d NEVER get my girls to leave!  They absolutely loved every second of it!  I think I’m as excited as Claire is for her dance classes to begin.  Eeeek!!

Claire has just begun to understand the fun of playing with friends.  She’s constantly wanting to go knock on our next-door-neighbor’s door to see if her little friend can play.  I can’t believe she’s this grown up now!  Time sure does fly!

Norah is growing up so dang fast.  I just can’t get over it.  Even today as I was uploading pictures and choosing what ones to blog I did a double-take, “is that really Norah?”  She looks so much older than how I see her day-to-day.  Norah is quite the “hoarder” these days.  It can be pretty frustrating for her to not be able to keep her hands on absolutely everything she wants to (i.e. her blankie, 5 matchbox cars, 3 colored pencils, a notebook, her puppy and a dolly… all at the same time), so we recently found her a little tote bag.  This is making life MUCH simpler because Norah can stuff it full of everything she wants to keep with her and carry it wherever she wants.

(Notice her tote bag’s straps over her arm.  Norah LOVES to wear her sunglasses that lost the eyepieces all the time.  It cracks me up.  She’s almost as diligent about wearing them as if she needed eyeglasses.  I think they are so adorable on her that I don’t mind.  She’s also very opinionated about what clip/flower she has in her hair, making sure they never match her outfit, it seems.)

Meanwhile, I’m reading (and totally LOVING) Parenting with Love and Logic.  It’s making my life at home with my little ones SO much simpler and more manageable.  I’m in love with this book.  I wish it was standard for parents to be given it as soon as they got a baby (feels like the missing manual on how to raise your kids).  So far all the techniques are working really well.

Randy’s had yet another week of working overtime.  Even though it’s been exhausting, we are SO grateful for the blessing it’s been to our family at this time.  He’s working 12 hour days, 5-7 days a week.  What a super-hero!

Tagged as: joy, midwife, motherhood, preschoolers, toddlers